I Made The STRONGEST Custom Nation In EU4

[@LudietHistoria]

Want to see the MOST FUN Custom Nation in eu4? Here it is kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4Wce5t_oMiifa8

[@jamielonsdale3018]

Out of curiosity: How often do you play beyond 1525? How often do you play beyond 1600 (roughly the half-way point in the the unmodded timeline) before getting bored and quitting?

[@canerc6668]

Hey Ludi, How do you get 800 points for designing a custom nation? I only get 200 points for it. 🙂

[@LudietHistoria]

@@canerc6668 settings

[@canerc6668]

@@LudietHistoria oh, I've found later on. thank you so much.

[@mrf1223]

You can switch diploma anex cost to goods produced +2 Very op in my opinion

[@lucanalon1576]

Curia Power Cost -60% for a catholic custom nation is OP, because not only you can have all of them constantly at the same time but also because as soon as you become curia controller you can have an extra -50% curia power cost. And curia power cost is not capped at -90%, which means that you gain papal influence by increasing your stab and mercantilism. It's a feature not a bug

[@dovahdood]

this also means free mercantilism, meaning you now have basically 3x what your trade should be…

[@d4s0n282]

@@dovahdood wait a sec, holy fk that strong, I might try this with a custom mp team game upcoming me me holy cow

[@dovahdood]

@@d4s0n282 Even better, do it while owning Rome itself, get up to -160% curia cost

[@Antonin1738]

I love playing custom nations, just wish you can customize mission trees or something

[@ops3892]

anime pfp

[@sageof6pandas233]

@@ops3892 so?

[@like31000]

@@sageof6pandas233 no rights

[@anakinthemannequin69]

Yeah but I can't seem to figure out how to make a custom nation mid game.

[@ncexistential4919]

@@anakinthemannequin69 you can't

[@raphaelmagalhaes1187]

I found your channel this summer when I started playing eu4 and honestly I love it continue the good work man👍

[@LudietHistoria]

Glad you enjoy it Raphael, thanks a lot for watching!

[@camandros099]

Hey Ludi, amazing content bro! I watch(ed) so many of your videos I hear you in my head as I play "ein classic shtaken wipen" Could you do a video where you cover the admin part of a world conquest, i.e., what to put in trade companies, managing government capacity, managing admin points, managing rebels, etc? Thank you bro you da best

[@LudietHistoria]

Hey Fernando, that's a great idea actually, will cover that topic properly once 1.34 is out so it's up to date!

[@wezez6078]

@@LudietHistoria Could you also include how to stack CCR or admin eff too? Every time I try a wc I go for administrative ideas but I never have enough admin to core provinces and to progress the idea set.

[@Ravie1]

@@wezez6078 Not sure exactly what you're doing, but IMO all you need for a WC is a solid economy and to get max absolutism fast after 1600. If you don't have the admin, focus admin, get advisors, and knuckle down for a few years and just don't expand (except through vassals) until you can get the 2nd admin idea. Just because you can conquer your neighbors now doesn't mean it won't be easier to do it later.

[@jamielonsdale3018]

@@wezez6078 This sounds kinda like you're expanding too fast.

[@crocworks]

Surprised there wasn't a Goods Produced or a Siege Ability Idea given, but seems like there are many good ideas to hand out and not enough slots for them.

[@jamielonsdale3018]

Which is superior? Leader Siege pips or national Siege Ability?

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

@@jamielonsdale3018 i think leader siege is better. Siege ability is nice for carpet sieging, but usually I have to siege some forts down before I can proceed. Now I do have to say. It was the worst in the Extended timeline mod (I play as Romans) and there siege pips are godsend before the advent of the canon

[@srbyv570]

Day 16 of asking for England campaign till 1700

[@doggopoggo5552]

Make it happen

[@kaiserofgames8742]

let's gooooo

[@marcin7054]

21:30 that's pretty good question, i was playing Bohemian HRE and my vassal swarm crossed Bosporus protected by ottoman fleet, on the other side Ottomans crossed occupied forts in eastern borders of anatolia from Syrian side AI have some issues with that.

[@vladimirjurevich]

Playing custom nations and random world nations sometimes is a relief after {i _will_not_tell} hours of standard EU4

[@LudietHistoria]

i feel you bro

[@Redarmy1917]

I actually did an ideas guy run last week. Custom nation with 800 points, but only start with 3 dev. I went Ibadi Mamluk Government, starting in the Western tip of Papua New Guinea to also have High American tech group. Gave myself 2 colonists at the start, and expansion was a bit slow, but it was sooo much fun.

[@tolgaturkmeneli]

I am one of that "kebab enjoyers" Ludi, greetings from Turkey! Everybody nows that Mehmed the Conqueror said "Now as we can get the Constantinople, Ludi can pick Byzantium in EU4 and he is gonna restore the good-old Roman Empire!" (Real historical knowledge.)

[@yusufoguncmert9257]

Some sources states that he was screaming “ein stacken vipen” in his bed at night

[@LudietHistoria]

both correct xD

[@turkogenc]

16:01 Hello there. F for last ottoman troopers. Fun fact: Last official ottoman dynasty member, Neslişah Osmanoğlu passed away in 2012. She was a great woman who loves Atatürk. Although there are some frauds that claims they are the last ottomans and they have some followers. They tried to sue against the republic for some return of properties. This is really ironic because ottoman dynasty fleed during the indepence war. The most fun part is that the man who claim himself to be prince or heir is selling shitty fake honey to people. (By the way they are actually from the family tree of Osmanoğlu but they are not in heraldic registry, so they are not part of the dynasty)

[@Saluuz]

Haha i love custom nations! Making new storylines to history with custom nations is so fun and op ideas is just fun:D

[@merovechaureliand5974]

I love creating custom nations that can form something else. And giving weird set of Ideas or just good for role playing :D I wish they have more sprites

[@VersusPretor]

On my opinion strongest custom nation had this ideas: 1) -10 cost all points 2) +20 morale of army 3) - 20 shock damage received 4) - 20 development cost 5) +10 discipline 6) +20 produced modifier 7) +20 infantry combat ability 8) + 40% government capacity 9) - 20 fire damage received 10) +10 admin efficency + prusian monarchy It's need 800 points, but you really can easy beat prusian, russian, ottomans or France ass with this ideas. It's really fun

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

I think this campaign would be funnier if you made Greek Hellenic horde. I can't be the only one who wants to see Helenic Byzantium right?

[@LudietHistoria]

omg i like that idea xD

[@4ester709]

You need to be orthodox to become Byzantium

[@g3org3yo7]

To the horse's!! Spartan's!! 😝😂😂

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

Sounds like Alexander. Whenever you conquer the capitol of a Great Power, rename it to Alexandria for roleplaying points.

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

@@LudietHistoria you could also do more chaotic campaigns like changing religion of every culture groups randomly and then spinning a wheel and play the nation that gets randomly selected. I must say that watching Confucian Spain make Native-American tributaries is pretty funny along with Inti Mamluks and Ottomans collapsing constantly.

[@blue291]

Hey Ludi, I heard that you pumped Viktor Vildras' videos recently and encouraged folks to check him out. That was a stellar move. Viktor's stuff is really solid and he is damn smart! Home being pumped means that he is much more likely to continue his EU4 work which, as a fan, makes me pleased. So, thanks. 👍

[@LudietHistoria]

Viktor is a super awesome dude and wtv i could do to help him is because he deserves the exposure

[@peachprincess758]

Very informative video! I like it!

[@samwill7259]

Never really had an interest in custom nations, but as always, fun to watch you screwing around with it.

[@CatladyAyaki]

Great video! LOVE IT!

[@speedyx3493]

I love watching you with my cat

[@Boiling_Seas]

I'm currently playing a custom colonial nation based out of Timor and Indonesia. Formed Malaya rather than Australia. 1 colonist and 20% settler chance as the first two ideas really turbocharged the colonial game, and 30% governing capacity for an ambition will be very helpful in the late game. It's 1604 and I control almost the entirety of South America, Australia, New Zealand and Southern Africa, along with Southeast Asia. My main colonial rivals are Japan and France, since Spain never formed.

[@wvp7498]

I followed this idea and went with a Military Republic, naturally called my guy Julius Caesar, let the republic tradition go down with any event I had. Then got the rise of a despot event and ended up having a Presidential Dictator for life. Byzantium is a n1 great power and next step will be reconquering Rome. Amazing fun campaign this way

[@mako8040]

tbh, artilery fire + infantry fire, probably the most op cn ideas when combined.

[@Pjong91]

50% reduced General cost. Combined with 25% from estate privilege and 10% from all power cost reduction. Makes a general cost around 7 mil points ( even lover when you get some innovativeness). You can get 100 army proff for 500-700 mill points. And an eternal manpowerpool.

[@Bighawkeye46]

I'm not really a fan of OP custom nations, especially the 800 pts ones cause they can be broken, but a Ludi video is a Ludi video so I'm here mostly for the running narrative of it all. Can't wait for part 2 to see how mighty the Byzantines will ultimately become!

[@Cpt-Tom-Cruise]

I only get 200 points?

[@SamButler22]

I had a really fun custom game as Verdun. In the HRE, massive so I get elected, can form France after I'm the Emperor. Can raid any coasts. Core creation, AE, diplo rep, discipline, morale, power costs, unrest, and manpower. Allied with Castille/Spain, but let them get too big and they expanded into Italy by the time I wanted the HRE to expand down there

[@nobody_expects_me]

19:00 the odds of the fort not falling after 10 times at 57% are if i remember well is p(fort doesn't fall 10 times at 57%)=0.57^10=~0.3% chance

[@Elbruz00]

Ottomans: Drawing careful borders so different cultures would not fight one another. Europeans: Yeah mate, that looks fine

[@ruairidhlloyd282]

Your point about Greeks running the Ottoman empire is half correct. The vast majority of the Pashas in the empire were of Greek origin but they weren't Orthodox. They were enslaved as youths and converted to Islam before being trained to run the bureaucracy. Because they had no Muslim nobility family ties they were more effective as administrators and didn't try to undermine the needs of the state with their own families needs. Thats why they were more effective. The Orthodox Greek population remained largely a peasant tax base they weren't given equal opportunity or rights and were subject to discrimination throughout the empire, any advancement of rights they had under one sultan could easily be (and was often) undermined by the next depending on his needs or desires.

[@alperenbykl9591]

You are talking about little bit tax turkish not assimilate culture or langueage and just Ottoman hasnt noble family other turkish country has noble familay.

[@pashakrakasewich6053]

I personally like to take firepower and the power of the onslaught on +1 as traditions instead of the morality of the army. Then the infantry becomes almost invulnerable at the beginning of the game, and even a large coalition will not be able to defeat an army of 30 thousand infantry. And to these two buffs, i also can add the power of the infantry as a whole, or discipline, and the rest according to the classics.

[@guyburgess7832]

Genuine question for the more experienced EU4 players out there - everyone says hordes are the strongest nations in the game, best for world conquest etc. So how come in all my single player games the hordes always get savaged and its Spain, Austria, France etc that become the big beasts that are the hardest to bring down?

[@viorp5267]

Hordes have a high skill cap any recomended playstyle which does not jive with how Ai works. As a horde if you don't reapidly expand you loose horde unity which gives bad malices and you overall are less stable. In Exchange you can expand stupidly fast. When you annex a province you raze it which gives you mana points which means you usually core for free.

[@wezez6078]

Ai doesn't know how to horde, but neither do I tbf.

[@Nappedk]

Oh look at dad bordergore i absolutetet love it Ludi 2022

[@Nappedk]

21.00

[@alisahinnnn]

It was the opposite, at first ottoman leading class was predominantly Turkish after the conquest of Constantinople Mehmed II gave devshirme class a huge influence to balance the power of Turkish noble families. And he started to appoint ppl who came from devshirme system to important places this continued till 19th century.

[@DavidLodgeclassof]

11:30 So when Greeks rule Turks it's very efficient. But when Greeks rule Greeks and Turks rule Turks it's very inefficient... Makes sense.

[@DavidLodgeclassof]

12:30 Also, it's 10y. And you can always take one province as an unjustified demand to get a connection to Europe

[@saabit_0321]

He gets the multiculturalism part wrong. The turks enslaved the christian population which they gave to Turkish family when they were kids and converted them to islam. In the end of the day beucracy was Turkish even though they did not have Turkish ethnicity but they had the identity. There are two main reasons this approach was used. First the Turkish population could be very rebellious and only gathered together during war second a muslim cannot enslave a fellow muslim. Ludi says that the greek had knowledge in administration which is quiet the opposite the ottomans inherited more from the Seljuks in governing than they did from the romans and the ottoman administrative policy was based on islamic law. In short term the knowledge was islamic with Turkish elements but the implementer were educated slaves that originated from christian families that would be converted to islam and assimilated to Turkish culture.

[@DavidLodgeclassof]

@@saabit_0321 I've long thought it ridiculous how much tolerance Islam gets in the game. I have Arab Christian friends, mainly from Lebanon. That is not how they remember things. And I don't just mean the recent past, because they talk about many stories of the past. I don't want to exaggerate things. The were Christian communities. But it wasn't pleasant under Ottoman rule (Mamluks were a bit better to the Copts, but still not great).

[@saabit_0321]

@@DavidLodgeclassof it still important to keep in mind not to oversimplify the events since we are talking about a 1.400 years history there will exists records that will tell both sides of the stories some will praise the turks and some will hate them. Lets take the jews into consideration they were expelled from Spain with muslims the turks were the only one who opened their arms to them and the sultan made law that would protect them and actually the governor of Egypt was hanged for taking their jewelry bcuz he meant that they should be taxed. Ironically many European countries have taken jewelries from Syrians refugees. However the ottomans millet system is good argument for why they should keep their tolerance as christians could keep their own, churches, schools, clothes, custom and tradition for a additional tax of 2.5% while they were free from military duty. Also take into consideration context look at Europe in the old day it’s hard to find towns and cities were religion and different cultures are mixed if the protestant lived in the other part of the town then the catholics would live in the other part of the town in the ottoman era people of differences would live in same neighborhood.

[@cxell_801]

Every nation with "solomonic empire" is overpowered in 1444.

[@IvanixCRO]

20:52 Herzegovina is Croatian part of Bosnia.

[@LudietHistoria]

never knew this xD

[@eafesaf6934]

@@LudietHistoria Bosnia is always divers, which is saddening that they are not equipped with a mission tree. In the flavor mods or the others, does Bosnia get missions?

[@grubygrzib6308]

If making as strong custom nation as possible I would choose to take only provinces required to form mughals and as strong ideas as possible. You can form Mughals instantly, your custom ideas will stay, you will get their overpowered government and have an amazing expansion path

[@matthewvincent9533]

I did a custom nation and gave myself +1 infantry shock and it was stupid OP

[@brgl61]

Lol I did a very similar playthrough recently except I just gave myself all the provinces needed to reform the byzantine empire at the start. Custom horde with starting military ideas is also very fun, your enemies just melt in 1444.

[@Carbonitt]

It's hard to be a ruler when your wife's surname is Herpes...

[@LudietHistoria]

Word

[@swanman183]

38th video of asking ludi for the first taungu empire achievement guide.

[@emperorofnothing1]

Honestly thats the only way I do multiplayer is set the world to random and create custom nations.

[@robertmoncreiffbosom1906]

Nice video

[@milesth26nesquid5]

‘Herzegovina is the Bosnian part on Serbia”

[@Da__goat]

Ludi living my dream in a custom nation

[@fawkewe]

11:13 Tbh ive always thought it was werid that the mughals were the ones who got cultural assimilation. 1. The literal plot of the game is the rise of the ottomans. Though they would definitely be way too op with this. There already debatably the best starting nation in the game and in 1.34 Ai Ottomans was unfairly strong even without the eiyalets and had to be slowed massively in 1.35 so it was actually reasonable to stop them after a certain date. 2. Poland was also successful for much of this era thanks to assimilation, and also ingame have a pretty small culture group and are surrounded by absolutely massive ones including Lithuanias. They definitely should atleast get both Polish and Lithuanian as a primary culture. Literally 3 of the largest 4 culture groups (East Slavic, German, and Levantine) are right next to Poland and mostly have missions around poland taking land there. Always felt werid to me, especially with the Prussian Confederation they don’t have this mechanic. 3. Chinese cultures are actually VERY different and even Qing and Yuan have there culture group change to one in the Chinese group (Yuan is cool because it also lets you convert Korea and Tibet to your group.). They definitely have made use of assimilation. Though tbf, by 1444 its pretty accurate how its portrayed.

[@EliasMatthiessen]

SMASHED the like button, can't you do a a part 2?

[@GothBoiCliiqz]

The easiest way to get ideas guy is Siberian frontiers in South America, foookin OP, I’d put potosi as the capital in 1.33 though because of the monument, opm that grows past ming in 50 years or less lmao

[@JonathanLauzon]

About the Imperator Unit Pack, the fact that this pack is not accessible by any mean makes Paradox look unprofessional. I contacted them about it and I even said that the community would willingly pay for it if they released the pack as a standalone DLC but they honestly seem not to care a bit. I mean, the product already exists, it’s working, their artists put time and talent in it, the preorder deal doesn’t exist anymore, there are customers willing to pay for it, this could be an easy income, but Paradox still gives us absolutely zero way to get it. It makes them look… unprofessional, I don’t know what other words I could use.

[@XIIIRog]

16:05 lol XD, so true

[@furkancan5219]

16:25 You will die desperatly if you call döner sh*warma again (!)

[@mergen3125]

"Herzegovina is the Bosnian part of Serbia" - Ludi 2020- just before WWIII

[@sadettinarslan5324]

combat pips are not anly pips he has. he has one more pip up his sleeves.

[@AnnieB8844]

Great vid! Still wondering where 1.34 is though...

[@Fessai1]

Why not flat Infantry Fire and Shock +1 ?

[@112ww1]

i think you right those are better

[@localprose523]

Ludi: - Ottomans has the best location Because of Ottomans location and expansion it is reponsible for the beggining of Modern Age.

[@PersonOfTheInternet280]

Getting the Governing Capacity % idea is a joke in how good it is.

[@Rullino32]

True, It's useful if you want to conquer lots of land for yourself, if you like playing with vassals you can stack liberty desire with influence, policies and ideas, you can use both for a massive empire having alot of direct holdings and some that are ruled by vassals for a very wide champaign.

[@hochipan_sabbath7898]

how you get 800 points? in my game the cap for custom nations are 200

[@wakelogger8357]

One more thing with Ottoman Empire; We actually used two things to settle us and be successful. Firstly we made nomad turk families settle down to the lands we newly conquered and made them spread the culture around. Secondly we never tried to forcefully convert people to Islam in the newly conquered lands unlike byzantine who were killing people if they didn’t become christians. There two policies we put to use made us get respected and rebellions were eliminated using this.

[@emircnar5316]

F for my grandpa's :))

[@Alexis_H.]

I don't know how it's called in english, but in French, a bidet is a little washbasin near the toilets used to wash feet or ass.... 🤣 Great dynasty name Ludi

[@mdc3924]

Nicomedia stronk! Greetings from izmit (nicomedia)

[@WolfSpiritMan]

Thank you!!!!

[@TurkishZombie]

Dude do the immortal leader. It is possible by taking a Polish low dev province bordering HRE and do the negative thingy.

[@aluminiumknight4038]

I love this idea, playing as byz when I win the wars and take back anatolia only to find that all of it Turkish and sunni feels like a scam xd

[@satoshikamiya4636]

Actually, the strongest custom nation uses Dravidian culture to get the gov reform for 10 ICA and -5 dev cost, along with Shia religion to get +10 shock dmg and -10 shock dmg received. Or go high American tech. Also, +1 infantry and artillery fire are broken ideas.

[@halilibrahimguler5140]

Please make more custom nation videos

[@harryprogamingyesverypro6872]

Day something of asking ludi to play rwanda

[@Tamsin53]

Hi Ludi! Can the Roman Empire restored and gain the achivement of Mare Nostrum as a custom nation?

[@nathanmarcano3171]

I love making custom nations.

[@reichtanglevictor1694]

Can confirm, turkish people here in Romania make the best shaormas :))

[@baldimorgornest8872]

Video 10 of asking for a releasable Nitra tutorial.

[@iriky2651]

How from this skin for Byzance unit ? The Purple Phoenix Expansion ?

[@alperenbykl9591]

I belive all balkans has same culture and we strong together i hope so get along

[@aram9167]

Don't you lose your custom ideas when you get the Byzantine missions?

[@LudietHistoria]

nope

[@berkbalci5309]

Hey ludi. I thought if you form a nation with custom nation you can’t take their mission tree. I were tried once italian horde and after I form the italy i couldnt be able to use mission tree

[@trevorfuhrman2862]

Ludi, can you add in the comments how you would change the nation ideas if you only had 400 points?

[@henrytobler1368]

have Played Mughals as custom nation just need i think 4 provinces to form it in 1444

[@titaconchi7172]

Please, could you do a opm designed with 200 pt? I did one in Sevilla-> Real Betis and I reached a good start annexing all Iberia first 100 years

[@staticshockk]

I don't understand why people don't use "create your own" features in games where you can. In my opinion they're great. The same thing exists in fifa career mode community where nobody uses create a club feature. Idk about other but I like creating my own stuff even if am mimicking existing thing rather than carry a torch of already existing things that made their histories.

[@jbb4105]

0:06 lol I almost exclusively use custom nations

[@elkhanmammadli6267]

Ludi how we can get bizantine ideas 💡?

[@diegopirrureinagaydelciber8789]

12 day of asking Ludi for a campaign with Xalisco

[@petroatamanyuk1510]

funny remark about 'Astrakhan' in russian 'trakhan' sounds almost as 'fuck' So if we will do some transaltion magic, in english this city will have name 'Assfuck'

[@Hell000Kaiser]

What requirements does forming Biz have? you must be greek, have the borders, and.... ? Any government type? or maybe Army type? I remember to have tried forming it in the past with a custom nation but i wasnt able. Btw, you also cant ge the forming rome archivement with a custom nation right?

[@xanatar3009]

1 greek/pontic culture 2 provinces 3 byzantium and greece cannot already exist You can form byz with custom nation but AI will never do it. Montferrat also has idea that can allow forming byz outside these parameters.

[@Hell000Kaiser]

@@xanatar3009 Thank you very much Xan. Do you know if the decision to for it is there from the begining or only afer you get all the condotions? Also, can i get the archivement of forming rome with a custom nation that becomes Byz?

[@xanatar3009]

@@Hell000Kaiser Unfortunately not, as the achievement has the wording "Starting as Byzantium" which means you cannot start as a custom nation. You can see the decision to form it I believe if you have greek culture and at least one of the provinces required to form byzantium

[@milovankojcic283]

How do u get to spend 800 points to create a custom nation i only get 200

[@einar0801]

was wondering the same

[@Spartacus.D]

@@einar0801 its in the options button

[@carltonleboss]

I believe you have to change the difficulty in the options

[@emircanyuksel8048]

Love from turkey ♥️

[@davidlindsey6111]

Infantry shock +1 infantry fire +1.

[@neutronshiva2498]

8:46 Ottomans cant make Constantinople turkish if they dont control Optimatoi and some other anatolian province.

[@peterhayward1553]

Any idea why I cannot find that Government type even though I have the DLC? It doesn't show up at all under Monarchy, even if I select empire

[@DjAintMyName]

How do you increase the points max? I just got the subscription and I'm messing around with custom ones

[@hanspeterwurst5724]

why not taking a good culture like manchu for banners or iberian for holy orders not 100% based custom nation, also i think siege ability is better then movementspeed bc sieging forts will probably be the bottelneck at this point

[@personmcman3414]

yooooooo custom nation content ^_^

[@LudietHistoria]

You know it!

[@personmcman3414]

@@LudietHistoria booya-schnackadosky!

[@aaronsteffensmeier4560]

I like the leader names

[@AntonioSancho]

Do you keep the original ideas after switching to Bizantium?

[@LudietHistoria]

yes you do!

[@cyberwarrior9425]

I get possible policies extra instead of diplo annexation

[@Mordacitas7]

Does Solomonic Empire no longer give 10% discipline? 😢

[@LudietHistoria]

it still gives with the priviledge

[@LiezAllLiez]

I mean, a custom nation is a (semi?) legitimate way to cheat. Give the state you create +morale, +discipline, +combat ability, cheaper troops, etc, and you just roll the opposition. A late game revolutionary France is nigh invincible (had a game where my poor 2k dev Oman had to go against a 6k rev France... it wasnt fun - ive had the upper hand on the seas but on land? Oof). So is Poland/PLC. Generally speaking, this game is about stacking quality ideas. If you, on top of those ideas, also have combat oriented NIs? GG. This is why, if you manage that, Nahuatl Aztecs, Hindu Nepal or Fetishist Zulu are so damn strong - on top of their combat ideas, they can go full quality + their religions give them additional discipline. You cant win a war, if you cant win a single battle. Its as simple as that.

[@Rachitoi]

Did u keep Ur solomonic goverment after u form Byz?

[@LudietHistoria]

yup